Responding to the new mandate received from Member States at the Ministerial Conference in Doha, as well as to the requests contained in the WIPO Development Agenda and the World Health Assembly´s Resolution 61.21 on a Global Strategy and Plan of Action on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property, the UNCTAD Secretariat is implementing a work programme on the development dimensions of intellectual property (IP) rights.

The IP programme conducts research and analysis on trade and development aspects of intellectual property and facilitates consensus-building in international discussions on issues at the interface between investment and intellectual property. More >

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An UNCTAD report now made available on the website suggests that a coherent framework linking local pharmaceutical production to greater access from the onset within countries is urgently called for to harness the full potential of local production capacities. Improvement in access to medicines in the context of local production should not be incidental but should be an explicit goal, the report says.

Experts participating in a panel discussion yesterday on how Japan has applied competition policy in the regulation of technology and intellectual property (IP)-related licensing agreements agreed that countries should have the flexibility to use approaches that seem to fit their domestic priorities and their relative levels of development.

A panel discussion is being organised for Monday, 3 September at the Palais des Nations in Geneva to focus on how Japan has applied competition policy in the regulation of technology licensing agreements during the post-War period.​

Events shaping the global pharmaceutical industry provide an unprecedented opportunity for the least developed countries (LDCs) to attract investment in the pharmaceutical sector, including from other developing countries, a new UNCTAD report contends. With the right set of policies in place, LDCs can use the local production of pharmaceuticals to help ensure greater access to essential medicines, the study says.

Events shaping the global pharmaceutical industry provide an unprecedented opportunity for the least developed countries (LDCs) to attract investment in the pharmaceutical sector, including from other developing countries, a new UNCTAD report contends. With the right set of policies in place, LDCs can use the local production of pharmaceuticals to help ensure greater access to essential medicines, the study says.​